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Facebook Groups gets photo albums and FB Questions, and group admins can choose to approve every memeber of a group. You can also merge groups. Facebook is adding a handful of features to its existing Groups product, which was overhauled last October. First is the introduction of photo albums for Groups. Before now it’s been possible to upload a single photo to a group, and now you’ll be able to upload a whole set.

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011. We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

Discussion Stories

Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo, spoke with PCWorld and claimed the company "has not yet determined if the personal information or credit card numbers of users have been compromised, but that Sony would promptly inform users if it found that was the case." Sony's James Gallagher (EU)and Patrick Seybold (US) posted the same things on different blogs. **"Unfortunately, I don't have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time," he wrote. "As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process and we're working to get them back online quickly. An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share. "Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure," Seybold wrote in yet another update. "Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security."

Amazon wrote Sunday at 10:35 p.m. Eastern. ""The vast majority of affected volumes have now been recovered. We're in the process of contacting a limited number of customers who have EBS volumes that have not yet recovered and will continue to work hard on restoring these remaining volumes.""

"We are digging deeply into the root causes of this event and will post a detailed post mortem," Amazon wrote.

Sites on AWS:

Everyblock on Amazon failure "Frankly, we screwed up. AWS explicitly advises that developers should design a site’s architecture so that it is resilient to occasional failures and outages…"

Netflix called AWS "our Rambo Architecture. Each system has to be able to succeed, no matter what, even all on its own." (in Dec Netflix Blogpost) The Chaos Monkey is a set of scripts that run through Netflix’s AWS process and randomly shuts them down to ensure that the rest of the system is able to keep running. Think of it as a system where the parts are greater than the whole. Recovery.gov--which the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RATB) moved to the AWS cloud a year ago--was unaffected by the outage and remained online without incident, said Mike Wood, the executive director of RATB.

AP is circulating a story - Several people accused of downloading child porn, turns out it was another person using accused open Wi-Fi. A Buffalo man, Sarasota man, and Syracuse man all found themselves being raided by the FBI or police after their wireless networks were allegedly used to download child pornography.

Wi-Fi Alliance published a survey saying that 32 percent of Internet users have tried to connect to a WiFi network that wasn't theirs. FBI has raided actor and clothes-shop owner Wes DeSoto’s apartment. The Feds believe DeSoto uploaded The King's Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter and other films to The Pirate Bay in January from Oscar screeners. "I’m nobody in the online file sharing world. This investigation is excessive and a waste of tax dollars,” he said. --- DeSoto is accused of using the Pirate Bay handle mf34inc to upload the films. The authorities pinpointed DeSoto as the alleged culprit because the screeners he viewed contained specialized watermarks. What’s more, the guild had snail-mailed traceable iTunes codes to its members, who could use the code to access the screener movies. On Pirate Bay mf34inc commented back that “SAG now sends out iTunes download codes for screens” and “I’m a SAG member and thought I’d share these,” according to the affidavit. A contractor watched the userid and nabbed an IP address while it was uploading Rabbit Hole on Jan. 28. Authorities subpoenaed Time Warner Cable to get the person associated with that IP at that time then obtained a search warrant.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says she has sent a letter to Google and Apple asking them to detail exactly what information their devices are collecting, how long the information is stored and for what purposes. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was sued for alleged privacy invasion and computer fraud by two customers who claim the company is secretly recording and storing the location and movement of iPhone and iPad users, according to a federal complaint filed today in Tampa, Florida.

Voicemail

Email

"Hey Tom, I've been watching TNT for the past week or so (and other TWiT podcasts longer), and on one of your recent podcasts, you guys mentioned the story about Google deleting all their content on Google Video. I just received this email (forwarded below) from Google. They state that they're eliminating the April 29th deadline and instead moving all content to YouTube instead. Google Video users can also make the switch immediately, if they wanted to.

- Connor"

"Hello TNT Gang!

I just wanted to bring to your attention the official MSP response to their data extraction devices that Iyaz brought up in episode 225. http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123-1586-254783--,00.html. The MSP has stated there are only 6 of these devices that they use (not in the hands of every officer as the media made it sound) and they are not allowed to use them on traffic stops. If Michigan had a ""hands-free"" law I could see how the use of them might be good evidence in court, however since Michigan has no such law, it wouldn't do them any good to use them in traffic stops. I hope this helps clear up some mis-information.